The Coca-Cola Company on Tuesday won the legal battle with Bisleri International over the intellectual property rights (IPR) of mango drink Maaza, with the Delhi High Court refraining Ramesh Chauhan’s packaged water company from using Maaza brand name in India.
Bisleri had sold the Maaza trademark to the world’s leading beverages firm back in 1993, but it retained the rights for overseas markets.
Since then, both the companies have been fighting a legal battle over the brand, with Bisleri accusing Coca-Cola of registering the trademark outside India and Coke alleging that Bisleri continued to use Maaza name in India. Reacting to the judgment, Chauhan told ET: “It makes no difference to our business, because in any case we were not using the Maaza trademark in India. The trademark is already registered and is being used in various other countries such as the US, Canada and the UK.”
Coca-Cola declined to comment on the development. The company had also accused Bisleri of allowing third parties to make use of the formulation for making the mango drink and sell it under different names. Bisleri had denied this allegation. The Delhi High Court had given a temporary order in favour of Coca-Cola in October last year, restraining Bisleri from using the trademark Maaza in India and also using the formulations behind the drink.